


CE5

by Soapbubblesoul



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: (So rating is subject to change), Aliens, Alternate Universe - College/University, And perhaps an idiot, Astrological Themes, Attempt at Humor, Denial of Feelings, Domestic, Eventual Smut, Fantasy, Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, Lots of Soft, M/M, Roommates, Yifan is lame
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-09 22:57:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12285996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soapbubblesoul/pseuds/Soapbubblesoul
Summary: Perhaps, just perhaps, checking on the light that had crashed into the sports building of his university in the middle of the night was the stupidest idea Yifan had ever followed through with. (Or perhaps it was the best thing that could have happened to him.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "[A] fifth category of close encounters[, short CE5,] with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI), [is] characterized by mutual, bilateral communication rather than unilateral contact."
> 
> In honour of Yixing's birthday, I've decided to post the first chapter for this fic.  
> I hope you'll enjoy~

Yifan knew there was a limit to how many cups of coffee a day were healthy. He had read up on it once in a bout of trying to fool himself into feeling productive while procrastinating his team assignment for calculus—at least he was researching scientific facts, right? And yet he found himself disregarding what various articles on the internet claimed to be the "right dose". Then again, who could blame him? It was finals week, and desperate times call for desperate measures. If making it through all his exams meant embracing headaches and shaky hands, so be it.

Sadly, he always came to the point where even coffee reached its limit in keeping his concentration levels up. At 2AM, he already had long since lost count of how much caffeine he had ingested. It had enabled him to stay on track with his studying plan for most of the night, but when his hands became so unsteady that he was 99% sure even he himself wouldn't be able to decipher his notes anymore the next morning, he decided to take a different course in stopping his mind from falling asleep.

Since more caffeine was out of the question, he decided that adrenaline sounded like a reasonable alternative. He knew that students were _technically_ forbidden from sneaking into the gym during the night, but his coach had slipped him a copy of the keys a few months ago when he had scored the winning points for the university's basketball team. The toothed piece of metal came together with the whispered advice that he could make it big as long as he kept on practicing.

Sure, there also were outdoor basketball courts if he would have been intent on not breaking the campus rules despite his coach’s permission. But Yifan had been cursed at one too many times for waking up moody students in the neighbouring dorms with the sounds of his dribbling, so the gym always ended up winning when he was in the mood for shooting some hoops after midnight.

He was on his way towards the sports building, already in his training clothes—which, truthfully, were only the ratty, old shirt and basketball shorts he had already been wearing for studying because they were so very comfortable—when a flash of light caught his eye.

At first it looked just like a shooting star but Yifan didn’t get to make a silent wish for his finals to go well—it couldn't hurt to leverage whatever luck he could get—because the light kept getting brighter and bigger, as if it was moving closer. He suspected a passing plane. And then a SAR helicopter. He was about to pull his phone out to check the news whether people had gone missing around his area, but he just couldn’t bring himself to face away from the ever-nearing light. Frozen in place, the alarm bells eventually started ringing in his head. Something akin to fear was coursing through his veins, but sluggishly so, disbelief keeping the feeling from really spreading. Was he possibly watching a comet race right towards him, about to wipe the whole campus from the earth's surface?

Before he could start formulating his last goodbyes to his loved ones, the light came darting down from the sky. He saw it touch the roof of the sports building, then there was an explosion of brightness that blinded him for a split second. It happened so fast that he didn't even have time to assume any kind of protective stance. Still, there was no shockwave or sudden heat, there wasn't even any sound of something crashing into the building he had expected to hear.

 _That_ was the moment when he mentally started calculating just how many milligrammes of caffeine he had consumed. Then he tried to recall whether any of the websites he had consulted about side effects of coffee stated anything about seeing flashing lights, or hallucinations in general. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at where the bright ball of light must have collided with the gym but the brick building stood completely undamaged. The rest of the campus surrounding him lay silent and untouched as well.

For what must have been the first time since Yifan had moved into the dorms, there wasn't any other living soul to be seen; no drunkards stumbling home from a party, no stressed students battling bouts of insomnia with nightly walks. It meant that there was no one else around with whom he could have second-checked what he just witnessed. He was a heartbeat away from turning around and walking straight to his bed, studying be damned. If his mind was starting to play tricks like this on him, it was obviously about time for him to be fast asleep. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling of curiosity.

Yes, the explanation of the light having been an illusion induced by an unhealthy amount of caffeine, stress and lack of sleep sounded more than reasonable but what if he hadn't just imagined it? What if _something_ really had fallen from the sky? It couldn't hurt to check inside the sports building real quick, right? Just to give his heart some peace, to know that everything was exactly the way it always was.

Before he knew it, he had already unlocked the front door, with his plans to play basketball long forgotten. The flash on his phone was the only source of light he had as he walked through the dark hallways. For a second, he had a flashback to the countless bad horror movies he’d seen back in highschool, curled up on a couch together with friends. In all of them, the clueless main character ran straight into their demise, blindly. But Yifan forced the thought down quickly, before it could cause a shiver to run down his spine or make his skin break into goosebumps. He gulped, trying to swallow his heart that had leapt into his throat back down to its original position. Then he pushed the door at the end of the hallway open, leading him further into the depths of the building.

There were many different training facilities housed inside. Two normal gyms used for basketball, volleyball and gymnastics, a dance studio with a mirror wall and a handrail to accommodate both ballet training and the hip hop club, and a pool for the swimming team. A weird, blueish-white light shining from underneath the door of the latter prompted him to approach the hall he hadn't set a foot in ever since orientation day. He wasn't really much of a swimmer. Basketball gave him all the exercise he needed to stay in shape.

Yifan hesitated before pushing down the metallic door handle. He, generally, did not consider himself an easily scared person. He was in the good middle ground on the scaredy-cat-scale that ranged from Zitao, the freshman who was more than capable of fighting off an armed attacker and yet almost fainted whenever a fly would suddenly appear in his field of vision, to Jongdae, Yifan's classmate who had never even been in so much as a childish brawl during his kindergarten time but who went through haunted houses as if he were taking a walk in the park on a lovely day. Yifan was jumpy—at times—but he still considered himself brave.

 _Is it bravery or is it just stupidity? That's the question_ , a self-ironic voice inside his head that sounded suspiciously like Kyungsoo asked, but Yifan ignored it. Instead, he focused on the feeling of the brass door handle under his fingers. It was slightly warm. Weird. He was sure it was not supposed to be warm to the touch in the middle of the night.

He blamed the singularity of the situation for the fact that his brain was spouting ideas at him he himself would have found ridiculous on any other occasion, but in that moment Yifan was _genuinely_ wondering whether he was about to meet aliens. The soft light creeping from beneath the door had started pulsing gently and it reminded Yifan uncomfortably of a heartbeat. One that was way steadier than his own racing pulse. He swallowed once, trying to push down the impulse to turn around and simply leave, to pretend he had never witnessed anything out of the ordinary while on his caffeine high.

But curiosity— _stupidity?_ —won out in the end. He mentally counted down from three—he chose to not go with five or ten since both would have given him too much time to freak out. As soon as he reached one, he pushed down his hand. Having miscalculated the resistance of the door, he burst into the swimming facilities faster than intended and he stumbled for a few steps as he tried to catch his footing on the tiled floor. It distracted him from his original objective for a split second as he did his best to steady his breathing. But his mumbling about how he had no reason to be scared—he was inside the hall and he was still alive and well—was broken by the sound of splashing water. Yifan froze up, his gaze still directed at his feet as if his body refused to let him look up.

_Let it be an overeager swimming club member. Just a student who couldn't sleep._

He chose to completely disregard the fact that the unnatural pulsing light was still illuminating the room, rendering those mundane explanations highly unlikely. In the end, Yifan didn't have any choice, knowing that his sole purpose was to find out whether he had actually seen something fall from the sky.

He figured that this was one of those things better done quickly, just like ripping off a bandaid. So he snapped his head up, fast enough to give him a sense of whiplash. His gaze immediately zoomed in on the pool, or rather the human-shaped, glowing being floating in the water. _Alien,_ was the first, not very helpful yet not too unreasonable conclusion his brain threw at him. _Dead alien?_ It elaborated when Yifan saw that the creature wasn't moving, its eyes appearing to be shut.

A spell of dangerous curiosity prompted Yifan to take a tentative step towards the edge of the pool in an attempt to study the alien better. It was undeniably humanoid. Male. Going from its physical form, it looked pretty much like any other guy Yifan had ever seen, and its state of undress gave the student the chance to assess its physiology pretty thoroughly. Yes, the other could have been a random, naked student. If one disregarded the glowing, that was.

The longer the creature remained motionless, the more daring Yifan got as he marveled at just how human the alien's build looked. The false sense of security prompted him to move closer and closer, and he was only two steps away from the pool when a shudder suddenly ran through the previously lifeless body. The tall student immediately froze up and he swore his heartbeat stopped as well in shock.

The glowing creature twisted slightly in the water. Before Yifan even knew what was really happening, the alien had already turned its head in his direction. Then its eyes opened and Yifan was greeted with the sight of two completely dark orbs; no pupil, no iris, no sclera, just darkness.

Yifan didn't scream. He was in the good middle ground on the scaredy-cat-scale, after all. No, Yifan did the sensible thing.

He fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

When Yifan came to, he did so with a displeased grunt. His head ached as if he had made the freshman mistake of drinking five different kinds of alcohol within two hours, only to pass out in the bathroom. At least that would explain the cold tiles that were pressing against his cheek. He heard the rustling of a body shifting beside him, and reasoned that one of his dorm mates must have found him.

"Dude," he groaned to whoever was next to him, still keeping his eyes closed because he didn't want the lamp that, obviously, was directed right at him to aggravate his headache even further. "Someone must have slipped something into my drink at the party."

He didn't remember being at any party, but given his state, that didn’t necessarily have to mean anything. He may simply have gotten so wasted that he blacked out and forgotten everything about it.

"Can you turn off the lights or something?" He requested when there was no reply, and the light shining brightly through his eyelids dimmed down a little. He sighed in momentary relief, and scrambled into a sitting position easily, even though it sent his head spinning. One hand reflexively flew to his temple when the throbbing pain showed no sign of subsiding. He found the skin sensitive to the touch, and his face scrunched up in confusion. No kind of drug or mixed-alcohol-consumption should have affected the _outside_ of his head as well as its inside.

"Did I hit my head on something when passing out?" He wondered aloud, more to himself than to whoever he could still feel in his vicinity. Figuring there was no use in keeping his eyes closed any longer, he cautiously opened them. He was greeted by the sight of a man, squatting down not even a meter away from Yifan, with his arms wrapped around his legs. Bare legs. Bare arms. But what really made Yifan's breath catch in his throat was the fact that the guy in front of him was emitting a soft blue glow.

Yifan blinked.

The glowing male blinked back at him.

Yifan noticed that the other's eyes were not like normal eyes. There was no white sclera to them. He blinked again, faster this time.

The other blinked calmly back at him.

Yifan wondered for a short moment, whether he was still under the influence of some kind of drug. Or asleep. He had to be asleep. What the heck was going on? He blinked again.

The squatting guy in front of him tilted his head to the side slightly, giving him a slightly questioning expression. Another blink.

And suddenly, Yifan shook from his stupor, as if the initial shock had worn off enough to allow him a reasonable reaction. Hitting his head must have made him slower, but now he finally recalled what had happened, and where he was. He would never let any living soul find out just how high pitched the sharp yelp was that he let out. He frantically started scrambling back to bring distance between himself and the alien, and the creature just watched him with that tilted head of his and the unnervingly dark eyes.

Yifan was still trying to move away as far as possible when, suddenly, the ground dipped below his hands. Or, to be more precise, there was no ground to be felt at all. Another not-exactly-manly yelp left his lips as he crashed back first into the pool. The cold surrounding him came as a shock, and he immediately kicked against the water with his legs to break through to the surface again, gasping for air as soon as he could. As unpleasant as it was, the collision with the water at least helped him clear his mind a little, and Yifan spent a second just floating on the spot. Thankfully, his chosen basketball gear for the night was so light that even in its soaked state, it wasn’t enough to drag him down.

His and the creature's gazes met again, and a shiver ran down Yifan's spine at the unnerving nature of the other's eyes. Then, however, he noticed how the alien's features were bunched together in a startlingly human expression of worry mixed with a hint of curiosity. Like this, from a relatively safe distance, Yifan allowed himself to acknowledge that neither the alien's physical shape nor his posture were anything close to intimidating. Quite the opposite, actually. It looked rather harmless, if Yifan was being honest.

Its mouth hung slightly open as if caught in a silent call. Part of Yifan wanted to believe it had attempted to warn him. With slow strokes, he moved closer to where he had dropped off the edge of the pool, and the other's features smoothed out into its attentive, slightly wary looking expression again. As Yifan carefully pulled himself out of the water and back onto the cold ceramic floor, his eyes stayed fixed on the alien, ready to make a run for it if there should be any signs of impending danger. But the creature didn't move from where it was squatting, and it also didn't look away.

"H-Hi," Yifan started, then fell silent when he didn’t know how to continue. His greeting echoed hauntingly loud back at him from the tiled walls.

At being spoken to, the creature's head perked up, and Yifan swore he could see its ears twitch slightly while its eyes widened in wonder. Yifan flinched at the sudden reaction, but thankfully was able to stop himself from instinctively taking a step away from the alien—which would have landed him right back in the pool.

The alien unfolded from its perch with a graceful, flowing movement, and Yifan was mesmerized for a second. Somehow, the otherworldly, blueish glow added to the elegance of the creature, although Yifan, for the life of him, couldn't say how that was possible. The glowing should have driven him away from the humanoid being, not pulled him in, yet he found himself taking a tentative step towards the other.

"Where are you from?" he asked, feeling stupid on many levels for the question.

For one, he felt stupid for assuming the alien would even be able to understand him. Why the heck would an alien be able to understand _Chinese?_ For a split-second, Yifan considered repeating himself in English, but he immediately scolded himself for the foolishness of that thought. For an extraterrestrial being, all earthly languages would be the same. He also felt stupid for asking the question in the first place. He had a _pretty_ clear idea of where the other had come from. He had seen it with his own two eyes after all, even though he still had troubles believing it.

At first, the alien just tilted its head to the side as it studied Yifan, much like it had done when the student had first regained consciousness. Then, it leaned its head back a little and Yifan swore its eyes darted towards the sky. Which was impossible for him to actually see, since the creature's eyes did not contain any visible pupils to indicate their movement. Yet, Yifan couldn't shake the feeling that when it next fixed its gaze on Yifan, it expected the human to have understood the gesture. Its expression shifted into one of anticipation, as if it was awaiting Yifan's next move. At least that’s what it looked like to Yifan, but there still was the chance that he was misreading the other's features, or even misreading its entire behaviour and posture. Was he suffering from a case of anthropomorphising the alien, wanting to see human traits in a humanoid yet clearly non-human being?

Upon witnessing his inactivity, the alien started moving, lifting its hands as if to signal something. Perhaps it was just trying to command Yifan's attention. Perhaps it was about to shoot a laser beam right through Yifan. Truthfully, both seemed equally likely at the moment.

The creature's radiance had been constantly dimming down; when Yifan first entered the pool, it had been bright enough to illuminate the whole room, so much so that the light had seeped out beneath the door. Now, its glow barely even managed to reach where Yifan stood, surrounding the alien in what looked more like a blueish glimmering aura than an actual emanation of light.

A scratchy, throaty sound filtered through the silence of the room, and it took Yifan a few seconds to realize that it originated from the alien in front of him. So the other was indeed trying to initiate communication. Sadly, Yifan could not figure out whether the sound had been supposed to be a word, sentence, or just the creature testing out its vocal chords. He was about to politely ask the alien to either repeat itself or to elaborate—discarding all his previous worries about the other not being capable of understanding any language Yifan spoke—but he didn't even get to start formulating his request.

All of a sudden, the alien stumbled on the spot. Its eyes widened in what looked like very human shock, and before Yifan even knew what he was doing, he had taken a step forward with his arms outstretched to catch the visibly struggling alien, should it fall. It was a weird, instinctual reaction, but Yifan didn't make it towards the creature in time.

In the next instant, light flashed in a flare of whitish blue. For a split-second, Yifan was sure the alien in front of him was exploding, and that he would die right there and then because he had been stupid enough to give in to his curiosity. With his eyes closed, Yifan waited for the noise, the impact, the heat, the surge of energy, _anything_ to indicate his premature departure from the world of the living.

There was nothing, however. Nothing of severity, at least. A slight trickle of warmth rolled over his exposed skin, but it felt more like a comfortable summer breeze rather than a scorching ball of fire. Then, a dull thud reached his ears, and after he had counted down from five, he tentatively cracked one eye open, the second quickly following. He was greeted with darkness, the previously soft glow having faded to complete darkness.

Yifan blinked rapidly as his eyes tried to adjust to the new lighting conditions, and after a few moments of standing still, he could finally start making out shapes in the unlit room. His first thought was that perhaps, it had all been an illusion after all, a caffeine induced hallucination like his initial guess had been. But as he looked closely, he saw a huddled shape lying on the tiled floor a meter ahead of him, exactly where the alien had stood.

With slow steps, Yifan moved in the direction of the creature, pausing every once in a while to assess whether the alien really wasn't moving. It wasn't. This time, it remained listless, even after the student came to a halt right beside it. Yifan had no idea what had happened, but when the alien's light had been bright enough to blind him for a moment, it must have simply crumpled to the ground. Like this, without any of the otherworldly glow and its eyes closed, the creature looked just like any other ordinary human Yifan had ever come across.

"You don't seem so special like this," he murmured to himself, squatting down to get a closer look at the other's features.

The alien was handsome, he had to admit. Very human shaped eyes—if one disregarded the fact that its eyeballs were a monochrome black—a very human nose and full, very human lips. All in all, Yifan couldn't stop himself from marveling at the creature. The moment was ruined however when his brain supplied him with the fact that in fiction, vampires wore their supernatural beauty in order to attract their human prey and feast on them.

"But vampires don't glow at night," he reasoned with himself, as if there really was the slightest chance that the creature in front of him could be a one of the children of the night that were referenced in tons of old and modern fiction.

Then again, vampire, alien—did it really make a difference? Whatever the other was, it definitely was something Yifan had been convinced only existed in books and movies.

Yet, here he was, cowering in front of an unconscious non-human being, and wondering what the heck he was supposed to do now. Should he just leave it here? Like this? Exit the swimming pool and pretend nothing had happened? He could wake up in the morning and it should be laughably easy to convince himself this all had been a very, _very_ weird, vivid dream.

However, he couldn't get his body to move away. He told himself that it was the fact that he had come too far to turn back without any answers—and, after all, he had survived until now. It was easier to blame his decision on the need to sate his curiosity than to admit that he was somehow affected by how helpless the creature looked like this. He couldn't reconcile it with his conscience to just abandon it.

Which, however, put him into the uncomfortable position of having to decide how to deal with the alien. His options included a) calling somebody for help or b) taking the unconscious creature to b-1) the RA in charge of his dorm or b-2) his own room. He immediately mentally crossed out option a, reasoning that it was too late at night to call anybody, when in reality he just didn't like the idea of sharing his finding. Not yet, at least. Which, in turn, also crossed out option b-1, leaving him with a course of action that had him feeling _slightly_ queasy. He was about to take _an alien_ back to his room. Clearly, two thirty in the morning was not the best time to be making sensible decisions, but he'd just have to deal with that once he woke up the next day.

A slight movement flittering through the creature had Yifan flinch, and he was a second away from jumping back to defend himself, but the alien didn't regain consciousness. Rather, it started shivering. The adrenaline still rushing through Yifan's body had turned him pretty much ignorant of his surroundings, but seeing the creature shake made him realize the coldness that was seeping through his soaked clothes. His chest constricted in compassion. Even if he had _wanted_ to leave the creature behind, seeing it in that state made it impossible.

Yet, reaching for the alien took more willpower than Yifan wanted to admit. Not that he didn't think he was justified in still being scared, the whole fainting thing could just have been a trick to get him to come close enough to be devoured. That was a very reasonable and realistic concern. But, the reason why he didn't want to admit to any sort of hesitation was that he had resolved himself that if he was going to behave like the idiot in any bad horror movie, he might just as well do it right, and without any reserve.

The alien's bare skin was surprisingly cool to the touch, feeling more like smooth marble than human warmth underneath Yifan's fingertips. His eyebrows arched up towards his hairline in surprise at the unexpected sensation, though if he was being honest, he shouldn't have had any expectation about the texture of an alien's skin to begin with. His fear that the touch might rouse the creature was dispersed when the other stayed perfectly lifeless, aside from the occasional shiver wracking through its body. Yifan was tempted to map out more of the alien's body with his fingers, to smooth over its back and figure out whether its muscles felt like human muscles beneath skin, whether its body was soft or hard. But he reined his scientific curiosity in and forced himself to not lose track of his goal. Which was, getting the alien to his room.

Retracting his hand, Yifan sat back on his heels to study the creature better. He had to devise a plan on how he was going to do this.

Occam's razor: the simplest solution was usually the right one, wasn't it?

Yifan vaguely recalled that the principle applied to hypotheses, rather than practical plans of action, but he chose to disregard that tiny detail. The simplest thing to do was to carry the creature. It was about a head smaller than Yifan and fairly slender in build. If the alien's weight was roughly the same as a human of a similar size, Yifan shouldn't have any problem lifting it off the ground.

With his decision made, the only way to figure out whether he would be physically capable of carrying the other was to try. Yifan leaned forward, about to let his hands look for suitable places to hold when he remembered a very important detail. The alien was stark naked. And it wasn’t as if the sight of a naked body made Yifan shy—okay, perhaps it did _a little_ . He wasn't as much of a playboy as the campus gossip liked to make him out to be. But no, it wasn’t bashfulness that caused him to halt his movements. Rather it was the sudden realization that even though it was the middle of the night, there _were_ chances of him being seen on his way back to the dorm by a returning partygoer, or another caffeine-high student seeking fresh air in the middle of cramming for their exam phase.

Being seen carrying an unconscious, naked guy over the campus did not sound particularly appealing to Yifan. Darting his gaze around the room, however, made him realize that there were no spare clothes anywhere near which he could have used to cover the other up. There wasn't even a stray, forgotten towel. Cursing silently under his breath, Yifan unconsciously fiddled with the hem of his shirt because the action always helped him think and calmed him down at the same time. The feel of the wet fabric prompted him to gaze down at his own clothes.

True, a shirtless guy carrying an unconscious pantless one also didn't really look that inconspicuous, but it still was miles better than a fully clothed guy carrying an unconscious _naked_ one. So, Yifan pulled off his own shirt, wincing slightly at how uncomfortably it was clinging to his skin. It was wet, and wouldn't be of much help in warming up the shivering alien—if the shaking stemmed from the low temperature, that was. Yifan couldn't be sure. Nonetheless the shirt would provide some cover, and since the alien was out cold, it wouldn't really make a difference for it whether the shirt was warm and fluffy or cold and clammy.

Maneuvering a lifeless body into the piece of clothing proved to be harder than Yifan had anticipated, but with a bit of creativity and a good dose of dexterity, he managed to put both of the alien's arms and its head through all the corresponding holes. He exhaled in relief once he finally tugged the fabric of his ratty shirt down the creature’s torso. The fact that it was a loose fit even on his build made it look more like a mini-dress on the alien's body, which Yifan figured only worked in his favour. Like this, it at least covered everything that needed to be covered. Flitting one last checking glance down at creature, Yifan deemed it ready for transport.

All his worries about the alien's weight had been dispersed during the process of makeshift-dressing it. Rather than being extraordinarily heavy, the creature seemed to weigh even less than its physique suggested, meaning that lifting it up posed no problem at all for Yifan.

The wetness of his shirt pressed uncomfortably against Yifan’s bare chest, and the fact that the alien itself wasn't emitting any kind of body warmth didn't exactly make the situation any cozier. Though, Yifan did have to admit that the smoothness of the other's skin was pleasing his fingertips. He quickly pushed the thought aside, however, instead hoisting up the alien a little further until he was holding it in a bridal style.

The absurdity of the situation hit him before he could even take the first step. Here he was, in the university's swimming pool past two in the morning, holding an unconscious alien in his arms. Surely not how he had imagined this night to play out. Or any other night in his entire life, for that matter. He still expected the shrill ring of his alarm to pull him rudely out of sleep, but there was nothing, and the next thing Yifan knew, he was already pressing the button to call the elevator in his dorm building. Thankfully, they had made it back across campus without running into anybody, and Yifan truly hoped it would stay that way.

He found himself bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet while waiting, as if his nervous movements would make the doors in front of him open faster. It didn't, and the metal case that must have been as old the building itself was—meaning it beat Yifan in terms of age—took its sweet time in rattling down to the ground floor.

Yifan had stopped worrying about accidentally waking up the alien when the door to the pool had slipped from his grasp as he left, falling close with a slam so loud that it made Yifan wince, the noise echoing through the hallway for what felt like minutes. The creature in his arms had remained completely unfazed, however, leading Yifan to the conclusion that it would not be startled from its state of unconsciousness any time soon. Truthfully, he was fearing that the alien might not be asleep, but dead instead. He had panicked at around the time he had passed by the outdoor basketball court, a few steps short of the vending machines, but since his knowledge of alien anatomy and their vital signs wasn't exactly stellar, he didn't see any way for him to check whether the creature was still alive or not. All he could do was wait for it to wake up.

When the metallic ding finally signaled the elevator's arrival, Yifan let out a huff. He lived on the third floor, and as soon as he had pressed the corresponding button, the metal case began its unhurried ascent. Yifan cursed himself for not having taken the stairs in the first place. Considering that the alien barely weighed anything, it would have been the smarter alternative.

With his luck, Yifan sincerely expected one of his neighbours to come out of their room and catch him on the last few meters to safety. Yet, miraculously, no such thing happened, and Yifan let out a relieved sigh when he finally closed the door to his room behind himself, leaning against the wooden surface as the tension drained from his body. Never before had Yifan considered himself this lucky for not having to share his room with anyone. And there definitely had already had quite a few times when he had considered that very fact a great fortune. Although usually those situations were linked closely to his libido, and not to the fact that he had to hide unconscious extraterrestrial beings. That one was new, for sure.

The thought threw Yifan back to the situation he was in. Right. Too early for relief. Way too early. There was still a very much unconscious alien in his arms. Which, Yifan realized with startling clarity, he had just brought back to his dorm room. In a tiny deja-vu of everything he had felt in the last hour, he went through a state of disbelief, followed by panic, followed by more disbelief, another dash of panic, then scolding himself for being so reckless and doubting his own decision-making-competence. It all washed over him within less than a minute, and left him feeling exhausted.

_There's nothing you can do to change it now. You can hardly take the alien back to the pool._

Ahhh, sweet resignation and acceptance of the circumstances.

Truthfully, odd didn't even begin to describe the feeling of setting down the alien on the covers of his made bed. Even after flicking the light on his nightstand on and getting to study the alien better with the added illumination, it was difficult to adjust himself to the sight. It was startling how convincingly human the other’s anatomy looked. So much so, that a tiny voice inside his head mused that in the setting of his bedroom, the whole pantless-thing looked a lot less out of place. It could almost have been a scene from some random party-hookup.

A shudder ran down Yifan's spine at the thought. No matter how cute the sleeping shape of the alien might have looked, it still was just that—an alien. No fraternizing with unknown extraterrestrial races. He was sure that was the number one rule in _some_ kind of rulebook on how to deal with such situations. There had to be rulebooks about this stuff, there were rulebooks for everything.

A sharp pain in his palm made him realize how tightly he had balled his fist. He forced himself to relax and take a few calming breaths. Whatever this was, it seemed to be truly happening. And he had resolved himself to not freak out anymore. Through mentally counting down from ten, he managed to get his heart rate down to a normal pace, and his head felt a bit clearer.

Another shiver running through the creature told Yifan two things: for one, the alien most likely wasn't dead, and second, it seemed to be cold. A silent curse escaped Yifan when he remembered the drenched shirt, and he scrambled to manoeuvre the other into a sitting position so that the wetness would not soak his blanket any further than it already had. He realized that he hadn't thought this through, when he noticed that the alien would not be able to hold itself up, and Yifan had no dry clothes within reach. Studying was definitely a lost cause for the rest of the night if he was being this slow.

His improvised solution included moving the creature until it leaned against the wall, giving Yifan the freedom to dart for his closet and pull out whatever clothes he could reach first. He turned up with a pair of boxers, basketball shorts not unlike the one he was currently wearing, and a shirt with the university's logo printed on the chest that he had been given on orientation day. Figuring that literally anything would be better than a clammy shirt, Yifan didn't pay too much mind to the fact that the red of the shorts clashed horribly with the bright orange of the shirt. Whoever had thought that that shade was a good choice for a university t-shirt should be fired from their position.

It was completely irrational to suddenly feel bashful at dressing the alien, yet Yifan felt his cheeks warm with a rush of blood. He had no hidden motives to be ashamed of. He only wanted the other to be more comfortable. On top of that, there was nothing he hadn't seen already—provided the alien‘s anatomy really was fully human. Like a mantra Yifan repeated these phrases inside his head as he quickly pulled off the wet shirt to replace it with the dry one before putting the alien's legs through the boxers first and then through the pants, pulling both up and over the creatures hip. They sat somewhat loosely, but they didn't seem in the immediate danger of slipping right off. Especially considering how the alien was still not moving.

Yifan inhaled deeply once he was done, realizing that he had held his breath the whole time as if that would speed up his movements. Perhaps it had. With the exhale, he allowed himself a moment to just study the other. The shivering had ebbed down—it was still there, but also visibly getting weaker by the minute. Seeing the creature dressed properly, its pitch-black hair in a damp disarray, it grew increasingly harder to not just let himself give in to the illusion that there was an ordinary human being resting in his bed. But Yifan knew better.

His study notes were left completely forgotten on his desk as Yifan slowly sank down onto his swivel chair. So, he had gotten the alien back to his dorm, unseen, and he had dressed it in fresh, dry clothes. But what next? He knew he had a Financial Reporting and Control exam early the next morning, but there was no way he'd be able to concentrate on powerpoint slides and lecture transcripts right now. Sleep was the best option, but his bed was occupied by the alien and he didn't have any couch. Sure, with the other passed out, he could have just as well placed the creature on the floor to have the bed to himself, but he couldn't bring himself to be so heartless.

He considered going two doors down the hall to see whether Baekhyun and Jongdae were still up and immersed in their gaming night, which would leave their room with two empty beds. As long as he brought ear plugs, he could probably catch a few good hours of sleep there. Neither Baekhyun nor Jongdae ever bothered with waking him up when they called it a night, they'd just cuddle into him. Sharing a bed with one, or even both, of his friends certainly sounded way more appealing than an alien that may or may not murder him in his sleep.

Yet, he stayed. It was a mixture of not wanting to leave a stranger alone in his room, worry that the alien might need his assistance if it woke up powerless, and sheer curiosity that made him not want to leave. Nonetheless, he didn't quite know how he ended up on the bed beside the alien. He had gently pushed the creature until it was right next to the wall, covered by his blanket and facing towards the ceiling. Like this, there was enough space for Yifan to lie on his side without touching the alien, and staying on top of his covers, instead of slipping underneath them, minimized the chances of unintended physical contact even further.

Truthfully, Yifan expected to have troubles falling asleep. After all, there _was_ an alien resting right beside him, and for whatever reason he had decided that sharing a bed with it was a better idea than sleeping either at his friend's place or on the floor. On top of that, the last hour had sent his adrenaline spiking, so it took him by surprise when between one blink and the next, the sun seemed to have risen.

Disorientation hit Yifan like a punch to the gut as he blearily tried to make sense of his surroundings. Soft sunlight was streaming through his curtains—he didn't know what use white curtains had either way, since they posed little to no obstacle whatsoever for any kind of light. It painted a deceivingly peaceful scene in his messy dorm room.

Usually, Yifan wasn't that much of a messy person. He surely wasn't the most orderly, occasionally leaving empty chips packages or instant noodle cups standing for a day or two before cleaning them away, but he also wasn't the type to let his room simmer until it developed a distinct bachelor pad odour. Yet, he couldn't deny that during exam season, he would usually cut down on any activity that took studying-time away from him, and his room's state of orderliness had a sad track record of being the first thing that suffered.

His eyes glided over the frozen-meal wrappings that piled up right next to the shelf on which he had put his microwave. There was a matching collection of fast-food take-out bags on his desk, but his gaze fixed on the sodden shirt hanging over the back of his chair instead. A small puddle of water had formed on the laminate right underneath it, and for a second, Yifan couldn't make sense of why the shirt was there. Why would he hang up a dripping shirt over the back of his chair and not on his drying rack? Why was the shirt drenched in the first place? Upon closer inspection, Yifan saw a glimpse of his basketball shorts peeking out from underneath the cotton fabric, and his mouth opened in silent realisation as the memories from the previous night came back. His alarm chose that very moment to go off, and Yifan swore he jumped right out of his skin in shock as the shrill sound broke through the tranquility of his room.

Curses fell from Yifan's lips as his heart did its damn best to beat fast enough to win a race against a hungry cheetah, and Yifan clutched at his chest dramatically with one hand while the other reached for his phone on the nightstand. However, the last tendrils of sleepiness still clinging to him made his motions even clumsier than usual. He managed to knock his phone to the ground instead of silencing it, which cued another barrage of choice words as he was forced to crawl out of bed to reach for the device that had managed to slide an arm's length underneath the bedframe.

When he finally managed to turn off the blaring noise, he exhaled deeply in relief as he let his ears be soothed by the complete silence that enveloped him. His eyes automatically slid shut as he sprawled out on the floor, his cheek resting against the laminate as his pulse slowed down with every controlled breath he took.

Just when he was about to drift off to sleep again—uncaring of the fact that now he was indeed lying on the floor, something he had tried to avoid at night—his second alarm rang. This time, Yifan didn't curse. He whined. About how the world just couldn't let him have his peace, and how he wasn't asking for much, he just wanted to cling to the comfort of dozing for a little longer. Morpheus’ embrace had always been his favourite one. But reality was cruel, and so he turned the alarm off and rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling to force his eyes to stay open.

His mind was empty as he studied the structure of the wallpaper to the background noise of his silently ticking clock, but the serenity didn't last long. As soon as he had blinked himself a bit more awake, the exam suddenly flashed in front of his mind again, and he jumped up immediately when he realized that he would not have a lot of time to get there. His habit of last minute studying usually had him stay up so late the night before any exam that he always set his alarm to the latest time possible. Which left him with just enough time to throw some clothes on, some water in his face and to rush to wherever his exam was being written.

He felt slightly dizzy from the rush of getting up so quickly, but he didn't have time to care about that. As he spun around in search of stray pants and a shirt he could tug on, his gaze brushed over his bed and the human shape resting beneath the sheets. He let out a deep, guttural groan as his hand raked through his hair. Tugging at the blond strands in slight desperation always helped him think a little better. Yes, right, there had been more than just last minute studying that kept him up the night before.

From the looks of it, the alien was still peacefully asleep, perfectly unperturbed by the turmoil Yifan and his phone's alarm had caused. Especially in the soft morning light, the other looked so convincingly like nothing but a random nightly conquest of Yifan’s —though, admittedly, one of the cuter ones.

He immediately scolded himself for the thought. For one, he had to stop anthropomorphizing the creature, no matter how humanoid it looked. Second, getting attracted to extraterrestrial beings was most likely a sure way to facing a premature death, if horror movies and books could be trusted. And third, he had an exam to get to that was about to start in—his clock said twenty minutes. Yifan freaked.

All his reservations about letting the creature stay in his room by itself were thrown overboard as he decided that he had neither the time, nor the mental capacity, to think about any solution for the alien-situation at hand. If he was lucky, it would just remain knocked out until Yifan came back. As he grabbed the nearest clothes and changed out of his sleep wear within record time, Yifan decided he would just have to risk it.

He made it to his classroom in time, but at the cost of burning lungs and stinging sides. Wheezing for air he plopped down in his seat, ignoring the nosy and slightly disapproving glances from his desk neighbour. Yifan had half the mind to apologize for disrupting her concentration and for his state of disarray, but then again, he didn't really care. He needed all the air he could get.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life got busy, so I don't know if I'll manage to update weekly after all. If you want updates on how writing is going, you can find me on twitter (my un is soyifab), because I'll always be crying there when I'm writing.  
> (I also cry there when I'm not writing, actually)
> 
> Hope you liked the chapter, let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And once again, I post a chapter of this fic in honour of Yixing's birthday.  
> Happy birthday Yixing!! You have achieved so much last year, and I bet you will reach even greater heights in the year to come! I hope you had a wonderful day, and I can't wait for NAMANANA to be released.

The exam turned out to be a mess. Not that Yifan had expected anything else, considering that he just had left behind an alien who was peacefully slumbering in _his_ bed. He really tried his best to stay focussed, but the numbers and letters just swam together on the paper in front of him as his mind kept straying, much more concerned with glowing skin than with tax rates.

In general, Yifan was rather good at winging exams. Nine out of ten times he‘d end up being okay even if he hadn‘t properly studied. This time he actually _had_ studied, but he still knew the very moment he was told to put the pen down that he would have to revisit the subject in the near future for a retake. And as much as Yifan valued a good academic performance, he still couldn't really bring himself to care too much about the failed exam. After all, there were more important matters to attend.

It was a weird conflict, to be simultaneously eager and reluctant to get back to his dorm. As he was climbing up the stairs to his room—after last night he had decided to be at feud with the elevator— Yifan‘s pulse was going a mile a minute. His hands were slightly clammy, and Yifan couldn‘t help but notice how he was a lot more nervous now, standing outside of his dorm room, than he had been two and a half hours ago when his professor had distributed the exam papers.

With a deep breath, Yifan hoped to calm himself down enough to open the door. After all, if he was being honest, he expected the alien to still be asleep. Considering how the way it had been impossible to rouse the alien the night before, it seemed a lot more likely for it to be dead, then for it to be awake. That‘s what Yifan kept repeating to himself in order to make himself take out his keycard and open the room.

It turned out to be a false sense of security he lulled himself into, however. Yifan walked into his dorm room with more confidence than he was actually feeling, but it all dissipated immediately when he found the alien sitting upright on his bed. A high-pitched shriek escaped him as he jumped a tiny step back. In his surprised shock, his arm jerked, making him pull his door into the lock with enough force to make the bang echo through the whole building. The sound caused him to wince, but even worse, it had the creature‘s head spin around to look straight at him. Another strangled yelp to escaped Yifan and he immediately scolded himself for it. He really _had_ to stop doing this yelping thing around the alien all the time.

A few heartbeats passed in silence as Yifan tried his hardest to get his heartbeat back under control, but he kept holding the creature’s gaze. It felt as if they were both sizing each other up with calculating glances, and Yifan definitely didn't want to be the one to back down first. Just like the night before, he couldn't detect any hint of maliciousness in the other's features, only innocent curiosity, but he still cautioned himself to stay alert and not give in to a false sense of security. Yet being alert didn‘t have to mean being hostile himself. Given that the alien had shown no aggression at all so far, Yifan reasoned it couldn't hurt to try and be civil while remaining on guard.

"Hi," he greeted tentatively, raising his right hand up in a half wave.

The creature tilted its head to the side slightly, the way it had done the previous night, as its eyes followed Yifan‘s movement. Its gaze hushed between Yifan's hand and his face a few times, then it settled on the former. Slowly, with visible care, the alien lifted its own right hand, copying the Yifan‘s gesture the best it could. As soon as it was done, it faced Yifan again as if waiting for Yifan‘s approval, its head still kept slightly angled.

The entirely dark-blue eyes were undeniably still giving Yifan the creeps, but suddenly he had to fight down the urge to coo. It really shouldn't be allowed for an alien to be this damn adorable. He wrecked his head for what to do next, and in the end, the only reasonable answer he could come up with was introductions. Apparently they had made it past the greeting phase, so introductions were the next logical step.

"Eh, I, ehm," he stumbled, and wished he had formulated the whole sentence first before opening his mouth. Then again, a simple introduction didn‘t usually require a lot of preparation, but Yifan‘s mental resources were severely limited at that moment.

"I am Yifan," he eventually said, and in his nervousness, he stumbled over his own tongue, then added a superfluous, "My name is Yifan."

He considered tacking on a 'Nice to meet you' but that did seem a bit overzealous. And as much as Yifan was trying to be polite, it still would have been a bit of a lie. Because it certainly was an experience, to have met the alien, but Yifan hadn‘t fully decided yet whether it was a pleasant one. When he was met with a bit of a blank stare, Yifan pointed his finger at himself, just to be sure that his message got across, "Yifan."

The alien's mouth moved, as if it was trying out the syllables on its tongue, but there was nothing but a silent rush of air coming from its lips.

"Do- Do you understand me?"

This time, the creature did answer, but the sound it produced was a throaty clicking noise followed by a small yelp. Even if the other, for whatever magical alien reason, could actually understand Yifan, it definitely didn't appear to _speak_ his language.

"Okay, this-" Yifan nodded. "-means yes. And this-" He shook his head. "-means no."

The alien kept watching him intently, but there was no indication of whether it had understood what Yifan had just said. But he had to give it a shot at least.

"So... Do you understand me?"

Yifan held his breath as he waited for the creature's reaction. For a second, the other just looked back at him motionlessly, then it started moving it's head up and down. Slowly, at first, as if to test out the motion. And Yifan knew, there was a possibility that the alien hadn‘t actually understood him, but was just copying his motions, like it had copied the wave.

Nevertheless it sent Yifan‘s heart racing again to see the alien nod.

„Am I holding up four fingers?“ Yifan asked, while holding up three.

It was slightly stupid, but it was the only thing Yifan‘s brain could come up with to check whether the alien actually knew the meaning of nodding and shaking its head. The question made the creature freeze on Yifan‘s bed, as it once more darted its gaze between Yifan‘s hand and his face. Truthfully, Yifan wasn‘t even fully sure how he could tell where the alien was looking at, considering that it didn‘t have a pupil. It was incredibly unnerving to watch the movements of the other‘s eyes, but somehow Yifan could tell exactly where the other‘s attention was focused on.

After a few seconds of evaluating Yifan‘s question, the alien eventually shook it‘s head. Yifan‘s heart skipped three beats, at least.

„How about now?“

This time, Yifan did show four fingers, and the alien was a lot faster in reacting by nodding its head. Any human would have looked at Yifan as if he was being mental, asking such stupid questions, but the alien remained expressionless. Perhaps it thought what Yifan was doing was a normal greeting between humans to establish communication parameters. Yifan wouldn‘t know how the alien communicated with others of its species.

Which brought Yifan back to the original issue. For some unfathomable reason the extraterrestrial, glowing being that had crashed in the university's swimming pool was able understand Chinese.

"Why do you understand me?" he blurted out before he could catch himself.

The alien’s expression stayed perfectly blank but Yifan swore he could still see a hint of exasperation mixed with helpless confusion in it and for a second he didn‘t know what had earned him the wordless equivalent of „are you kidding me?“. A sudden rush of indignation passed through him at having his question deemed stupid by the alien. It was anything but stupid, it was a very essential, important question. The feeling passed as quickly as it had arisen however when Yifan realised why the creature was looking at him like that instead of answering.

"Oh, right, only yes or no questions..." he mumbled to himself.

When the alien nodded its head, Yifan couldn't help but shoot it a glare. Just a little one. But he had to somehow counteract the sass the creature was emitting. He swore he could the see the ghost of a smirk form on the creatures lips, but that might also have been his imagination.

"Okay, okay, give me a moment to think."

With a few quick steps, Yifan crossed the room to pull out his desk chair. He spun it around to face the bed, before sinking down on it.

Something about Yifan sitting down instead of looming over the alien must have acted as a prompt for the creature to get more comfortable as well. It shuffled back on the bed, folding its legs beneath its body and leaning forward until it could rest its elbows on the mattress. Its head came down until it was supported by its balled fists. The position was not one Yifan would ever have considered to be comfortable, but the creature looked very much at ease like this. And no matter how much Yifan wanted to trust the peace they seemingly had established, the intensity of the alien‘s gaze as it was eyeing him sent shivers running down Yifan's spine.

"Are you from another planet?" he asked, hoping to distract from the fact that his voice wasn‘t perfectly firm.

The alien shook its head gently, making Yifan's forehead furrow in confusion. He definitely had expected a nod to that question. The creature was not from another planet? But if it wasn't from another planet, where did it come from? Assuming it did understand the question, and wouldn‘t lie to him about its origin.

"Are you from a spaceship?"

Yifan figured that the only possible alternative to being from another planet would be for the alien to have been born and raised on a spaceship. Yifan‘s imagination immediately started running wild, wondering what it must be like, to spend one’s whole life within the confines of a spaceship. All his potential inquiries were cut off however when instead of nodding, the creature shook its head.

„Huh?“ Yifan asked, dumbfounded.

Even crouched on Yifan‘s bed, the creature somehow still managed to tilt its head to the side in confusion.

"But, if you're not from another planet, and not from a spaceship, then where are you from?" Yifan was more than just a little confused, but still hurried to followed it up with, "I'm not asking you, I'm just thinking aloud." to avoid another deadpan gaze.

He helplessly wracked his brain, but he came up absolutely blank for possible alternatives. What was there out there aside from other planets and spaceships?

„Asteroid?“

No nodding this time either.

With a deep sigh, Yifan decided to give up for now. He filed the matter away as something to ask about again some other time, when he had worked out a better method of communicating than yes or no questions. Rather, there was another topic that had been sat on the tip of his tongue, something he had bitten back, and he felt slightly stupid for actually voicing it; yet he simply could not help himself.

"Do you-" he hesitated, "-want to eat me?"

The alien's answer was instantaneous—another shake of the head, though this one was stronger, with more vehemence. Perhaps it was just Yifan anthropomorphising the alien again, but he could have sworn it even looked slightly offended by the question.

"Okay, okay, sorry for asking, just had to make sure." He held his hands up in defence.

"Actually," he continued "Speaking of food. Are you hungry?"

Part of him suddenly felt like a bad host for not having considered that the other might need food. After all, it was already well past noon and he himself was starving. The creature took its time to consider its answer, which was slightly weird. Figuring out whether one wanted food or not wasn't exactly rocket science, and shouldn't take much contemplation, but Yifan didn't want to rush the alien either. Eventually, it slowly moved its head up and down. Yes.

Great. That meant Yifan had one hungry alien inside his room, and no freaking idea what to feed it. Since any question that couldn't be answered by either a nod or a shake of the head were off the table, he couldn't simply ask what the creature's usual diet consisted off. So he had to be a bit more creative in figuring out what sort of food to get for them.

"So... how hungry are you?" he asked. "Very," He spread his arms widely apart, "Moderately," He brought his hands closer together, "Or only a little?" He closed the distance until there only remained a small gap.

The alien sat up to free its arms so it would be able to copy Yifan's gestures, and looked at them in contemplation before lifting its hands to signal a distance that laid between 'moderately' and 'only a little', but was closer to the former than the latter. It didn't seem very certain of its answer, but Yifan got the picture.

Another problem remained, however. He might know now _how much_ food he should get the alien, but he wasn't any closer to knowing _what kind_. Yifan considered just asking a string of "Do you like....?" questions, but for one, it seemed like so much a hassle and, more importantly, he couldn't be sure that the creature would know about human food either way. Right? Yifan skilfully ignored the fact that the creature's evident knowledge of the human language implied that it might know about other aspects of human life as well. His stomach simply was overruling his rational reasoning, and pushed him to make a decision without any more delay instead.

In the end, he settled on ordering pizza. After all, everyone loved pizza, right? It also meant they didn't have to leave the room—with the alien's eyes, going to a restaurant was out of question, no matter how human its body looked. On top of that, Yifan had been craving pizza for so long already and this seemed like the perfect excuse to give in to the desire. Thankfully, the pizza joint near campus was famed for getting desperate students their comfort food within record time, and since it was few hours before the usual dinner-rush-hour, Yifan knew he could expect to get his delivery within less than 20 minutes.

Which was incredibly fortunate, because there were only so many yes or no questions Yifan could come up with, and the atmosphere quickly grew awkward when their conversation dried up. When his phone finally rang to signal the arrival of their food, Yifan sent a wordless thank you to the heavens for giving his mouth something else to do than talking.

The alien's head perked up when Yifan carried the carton into the room, its nostrils flaring visibly as it took in the smell. Yifan silently congratulated himself for the choice of food, since the way the other's gaze was glued to the pizza could only mean that it found the scent to be quite entrancing. Yet the creature seemed a bit hesitant when Yifan freed up his little nightstand to pull it between the bed and his desk chair as a makeshift table. Even after the student had opened the carton to reveal their lunch, the creature didn't make any move, as if it was unsure what to do. Which wasn't too far-fetched. Yifan couldn't imagine that the alien had ever had pizza before.

"Here, you just take it like this," he explained, taking a slice into his own hands. "And then you eat it."

At first, the alien just darted measuring glances between him and the pizza, but eventually it tentatively extended its hand towards the carton. Yifan was already on the crust of his first slice when the other was still studying the food it was holding. He had to suppress a chuckle when the creature sniffed at the pizza, its nose scrunching up cutely. Then the alien started picking at the toppings, and Yifan was just about to ask whether something was wrong when he noticed that the other was only removing the salami and placing it back in the carton, leaving all the vegetables in place.

"You don't eat meat?"

The creature had been so immersed in its task that it looked downright startled by Yifan's voice, before turning contemplative as if the question warranted thorough consideration. Yifan found that the alien did that quite often, think very hard about questions Yifan would have considered rather easy to answer. In the end, the creature nodded.

A vegetarian alien. Well, that certainly settled the matter of Yifan having to fear being devoured in his sleep.

As soon as the piece of pizza had been cleared of any remains of meat, the creature finally started eating. Yifan tried his best to remain nonchalant and not stare, as he feared it would make the alien uncomfortable to be watched so closely. Yet he couldn't help the content smile spreading on his face when the creature visibly enjoyed its meal, wolfing down four slices in quick succession. Deciding that he wasn't that hungry either way, Yifan limited himself so that the other could have most of the pizza.

"Was it good?" Yifan asked once the carton was empty and the alien had leaned back to rub its hand gently over its tummy.

The answer was a rather enthusiastic nod, prompting Yifan to grin at the alien, gums and all. It was downright startling how intense the happiness was that Yifan felt at having made the creature's first meal on earth a pleasant one. He hadn't realised he had traded his fear of the creature for a sense of... fondness. That was the only way he could think of describing it. Somewhere between answering Yifan's questions and picking the salami off its pizza before devouring the slices hungrily, the alien had wormed its way into Yifan's heart, convincing him of its harmlessness.

Perhaps it was the vegetarian part. Not having to fear to end up as food for the creature was certainly a weight off his shoulders.

✩✩✩

If someone had told Yifan a few weeks, or even a day prior, that one day he’d have an alien sat on his bed, its legs crossed and its elbows resting on its knees as it hummed along happily to the music blasting from Yifan‘s iPod, he‘d called them insane.

If they, in addition to that, told him that instead of paying attention to the alien, he‘d be sitting at his desk to go through the notes of his marketing lecture, he‘d have either recommended them a mental ward or accused them of having no common sense whatsoever. After all, surely no lecture in the world could be more interesting, fascinating, and, frankly, more important than an extraterrestrial being bouncing up and down softly on his mattress.

And yet, here he was, skimming over lecture notes to the background noise of what was a startlingly on-key hummed rendition of Uptown Funk. It almost scared Yifan how comfortable he felt in this situation. He‘d never admit it to anyone, but the alien‘s low voice was downright soothing. Actually it put him way more at ease than the hip hop or the classical music he usually put on for studying. At one point between eating pizza and asking the alien all the yes-or-no questions his creativity supplied him with, his view of the creature seemed to have changed from seeing the other as a life-threatening extraterrestrial being to seeing it as... a harmless, slightly lost extraterrestrial being.

So he did not consult the internet to find institutions or individuals to whom he could hand over the creature, ones potentially better skilled at dealing with close encounters of the fifth kind. Instead, Yifan offered the alien his iPod, kindle or his laptop to keep it entertained while he had to study. He even went as far as to apologise for not being able to give it much attention, explaining that he had already failed Financial Reporting and Controlling and he couldn‘t afford to mess up his marketing exam the next day.

The alien had stared at him with blank eyes in response, but Yifan couldn‘t quite figure out whether that was because it didn‘t understand why he was apologising or whether it didn’t get what he was talking about in the first place. In the end, it had simply turned to the technological gadgets Yifan had placed on the blanket beside it but instead of picking anything up, it had just regarded everything with an air of cautious curiosity. Figuring that it might simply not know how to handle a laptop or iPod, Yifan gave the alien a quick crash course, and as soon as he had finished his demonstration it went for the iPod with little hesitation. The way it struggled with the technology made Yifan‘s theory of the creature originating from a high-tech space ship seem all the more unlikely. It was downright amusing to see how fascinated the creature seemed by how the little cubic device was able to produce music.

The hours passed by quickly as Yifan slaved away over reference literature, lecture notes and powerpoint slides. He only took one break, and even that was just to run to the convenience store around the corner to get instant noodles for both him and the alien. It wasn‘t exactly a very health or very tasteful meal, and Yifan felt slightly bad about not being able to feed the alien better food. Especially after the pizza had elicited such a positive response. But he simply didn’t have the time to make his way to one of the canteens, and he couldn‘t financially afford having food delivered twice a day. So, as the most time and cost efficient choice, instant noodles it were.

Despite his worries of not being able to please the creature‘s palate, the other showed no signs of complaining whatsoever. On the contrary, the alien was virtually inhaling the contents of the plastic cup with a vigour that rivalled the one it had displayed with the pizza. Perhaps keeping the alien fed would be less of a problem then Yifan had initially anticipated.

Nighttime found him still seated at his desk, a half-empty thermosflask filled with coffee beside him and the room entirely dark aside from the eery glow coming from his laptop screen and the weak light of his desk lamp. Yifan really should invest in a new one, but during the day he always forgot and at night he was always too lazy to deal with picking one from taobao. Next to him, his phone blinked up with a message from Lu Han telling him to go to bed. The elder who lived in the dorm building opposite to his must have seen the light in Yifan’s room from his window. The clock had barely struck 2am, which was still early in Yifan‘s books but after he had told his friend to mind his own business—he knew Lu Han would know he appreciated the other‘s concern for his health—he rolled himself away from his desk to stretch his stiff limbs with a groan.

Only then did the quiet of the room fully strike him. The low humming of the alien‘s voice had faded into silence at one point during the night and when Yifan turned in his seat to check up on the creature, he found it leaning against the wall beside Yifan‘s bed, fast asleep. An irrational wave of guilt rushed through the student at seeing the awkward position. He told himself that it wasn‘t his responsibility to make sure that the alien was happy, or comfortable. Yet he couldn‘t shake the feeling that somehow he _was_ responsible. After all, the creature had done him no harm so far, and it went against Yifan morale to just abandon a helpless being. And if he took the creature in, then that included caring for its well-being. At least that‘s how he tried to justify it when he closed his textbooks and shut down his laptop and walked over to his bed.

For a few moments, he simply stood there and studied the alien‘s features. It looked so peaceful in slumber, and Yifan was struck once again by how human the creature‘s appearance was. No matter how closely Yifan observed the alien, the only physical feature that set it apart from humans was its unnerving sclera-less eyes—or pupil-less, Yifan hadn‘t fully decided yet if its eyes were all pupil or all sclera. Even after having eaten and rested, the alien‘s glowing hadn‘t returned, and Yifan wasn‘t quite sure what to make of that. Somehow he had expected that the glowing he had witnessed in the pool would come back once the creature regained its energy. So either the other hadn‘t recovered fully yet, or Yifan‘s theory was simply wrong.

The only thing he knew was, that without the glowing, and with its eyes closed in sleep, there was nothing giving away the alien‘s otherworldly nature. It was somewhat unnerving, because it made it so easy—way too easy—for Yifan to forget in that moment that the other was not just some random guy, fast asleep on Yifan‘s bed.

The rational part of Yifan told him to go back to his desk, to reopen his books and to study until the first rays of sunlight hit his window, just like he‘d usually do the night before an exam. But somehow the sight of the alien, even slouched against the wall like it was, triggered something in him. He felt a weird sense of calm, one he hadn‘t expected to feel right in the middle of his exam period, and he found himself utterly unwilling to go back to dry lecture notes about marketing.

So, against his better judgement, he changed into his sleeping clothes, went about his evening routine with quick movements and eventually switched off all lights in his room at barely half past two. His phone flashed up with a message of Lu Han, the elder surprised that Yifan actually heeded his advice. Yifan tried to think of a fitting comeback, something along the lines of „Don‘t think too much of it, this isn‘t because of you,“ but he couldn‘t come up with anything witty so he chose to simply ignore the text and deal with it in the morning. After setting his alarm for the next morning he put the phone down on his nightstand and turned towards the alien.

He was hesitant about moving the sleeping creature, afraid his touch would jostle it now that it wasn‘t passed out from sheer exhaustion, but he also couldn‘t just let it spent the night in such an awkward position. Taking a deep breath, Yifan gathered all his courage, and braced himself for being attacked by a rather disgruntled and disoriented alien. When his fingers came into contact with the other‘s skin, however, it didn‘t even flinch, and it showed no indication of waking as Yifan manoeuvred it into a lying position.

The night before, Yifan had used his blanket as a barrier between the both of them, and he briefly considered repeating that but ended up deciding against it. Neither did the alien seem to harbour any malicious intentions, nor did it seem to mind Yifan‘s proximity. Which meant there were no compelling arguments for Yifan to give up the comfort of his blanket, and so he decided not to.

He slipped under his covers, and settled on his side, facing away from the wall and the sleeping alien. The sound of slow breathing behind his back should have been unsettling, but somehow it wasn‘t. On the contrary, it lulled him in easily and Yifan was asleep within minutes.

✩✩✩

When Yifan set foot back into his dorm building, the sun was already disappearing behind the horizon, painting the whole campus in shades of orange and red. In his hand he held a plastic bag containing two boxed of fried rice, his go-to takeout food when he didn‘t know what else to get. As he was climbing the stairs up to his floor, he kept cursing his economy professor. How could he think that the middle of the exam phase was a good time to make up for a class that had to be cancelled due to the professor‘s sickness? And since attendance was mandatory and counted towards their grades, Yifan couldn‘t even simply skip the class.

By the time he finally came to a halt in front of his door, he was slightly out of breath. He was in good shape, but he had hurried to get home as fast as possible. He had been gone since the morning, and even though he had an emergency stash of instant noodles and chips bags, he wasn‘t sure whether the alien had dared touching either. Before leaving, Yifan had told it to help itself if it should get hungry, but the alien hadn‘t looked very convinced by Yifan‘s permission. On top of that, Yifan hadn‘t seen the creature move from the spot on his bed Yifan had put it on two days ago, as if it didn‘t know whether it was allowed anywhere else in the room. So there was a very high possibility that the alien hadn‘t eaten anything all day. Yifan had no clue how much nutrition the alien needed, how much water and food, but going by the way it had wolfed down the pizza the previous day, the creature was very well capable of hunger.

And indeed, the moment he walked into the room, the alien‘s head whipped up to face towards him. Yifan expected big, curious eyes, but what he got instead was a wide, brilliant smile that completely caught him off-guard. Freezing in his spot, Yifan tentatively mirrored the other‘s  expression before lifting his right hand to showcase the take-out boxes.

„Sorry for being gone so long. I brought food,“ he explained as he pulled the door close behind him, exchanging his shoes for slippers and moving towards the bed.

„It‘s okay. Welcome back.“

And just like that, Yifan stopped dead in his tracks again, eyes widened in disbelief. For a second he, the only reasonable explanation he could come up with was that he was experiencing hallucinations. It had been a long day with a too short night preceding it, and perhaps a lack of coffee could have the same effect as an excess of it did? Either way, he was left gaping at the alien, which met Yifan‘s gaze with a serene, slightly amused look.

„You- What- Why- How-“ Yifan stuttered, trying to put his thoughts into a sensible order, but failing spectacularly when he simply ended up blurting out, „ _What?“_

The alien blinked at him with innocent eyes, confusion colouring its expression.

„Is that the wrong thing to say?“ it asked, and Yifan felt like he was seconds away from a complete mental meltdown.

Just when he felt as if he had made peace with the presence of an alien within his room it had to go and start speaking perfectly accent-free Chinese out of the blue.

„It- no- just-“ he started, but clamped his mouth shut again when he realised that there were only disjointed words falling from his lips.

Before continuing, he took a deep breath and forced his thoughts back into a sensible order, so that he could at least properly vocalize his confusion. „You- you can speak Chinese? Why didn‘t you answer me yesterday?“

The alien looked back at him as if it didn‘t quite understand his question, but just when Yifan was about to rephrase it, the creature answered. „Because I couldn‘t speak Chinese yesterday. But you don‘t seem capable of learning my language, so I had to learn how to speak yours.“

Yifan was taken aback by the deadpan voice of the other, and he had half a mind to be offended because he felt as if the alien had just called him stupid. Then again, he couldn‘t deny that there was some truth to its assessment. If these weird clicking sounds the other had produced the previous day had been words in the other‘s language, Yifan didn‘t really stand a chance of learning it within a reasonable time frame. Certainly not _within a single day._ If that was the the frame of reference, then Yifan had to contritely agree that perhaps he was indeed stupid.

He wasn‘t really feeling very smart either as he kept stammering, but at the same time he couldn‘t really care. Everything about this situation was just too damn surreal. „But- how?“

„You left me your laptop. I  found some movies to watch while you were gone,“ the creature said, as if movies were a perfectly obvious explanation for a sudden gain of linguistic capabilities.

Then again, the other _was_ an alien, and it was foolish of Yifan to expect human limitations to apply to the other. After all, no human would survive falling from the sky and crashing into a swimming pool to begin with. So why was he even questioning these things? For the sake of his sanity, it would be better to simply accept them, just like that.

Drawing a blank at what else to say, Yifan suddenly was reminded of the food in his hand. So he lifted it up and said. „I brought food.“

„I know,“ the creature answered, an amused smile playing on its lips. „You already said so.“

„Right,“ Yifan muttered to himself, scatterbrained in his confusion.

If he hadn‘t known better, he would almost have said that the alien‘s chuckle sounded fond, as if it found his state of bewilderment endearing. Yifan discarded the thought as unlikely, though. Surely that was his imagination. Instead, he busied himself with pulling his desk chair towards the bed before handing the alien one of the boxes. „I guess you haven‘t eaten yet?“

The creature answered with a shake of its head, and thanked Yifan for the food before opening the container and taking a whiff of the aroma.

„I ordered the vegetarian version for you,“ Yifan explained as he took out his own dinner.

He said it mostly to fill the silence, but the grateful smile he received in response made his heart flutter slightly. He immediately and vehemently demanded it to stop doing that, he could not let himself be charmed by the creature just that easily.

„I know you have questions,“ the alien piped up in between mouthfuls of fried rice, a few minutes into their meal.

Oh yes, Yifan did have questions. Dozens of them, to be exact. Actually he had been biting his tongue to stop himself from blurting out anything stupid again. Now that he was prompted, however, there really wasn‘t much reason to stay silent any longer.

„I do,“ he admitted, his chopsticks hovering mid-air.

„Then ask. I will try to answer.“

It was not an easy task for Yifan to chose where to start. He wasn‘t the most diplomatically skilled person, he was well aware of that. The way he approached matters often came across as blunt and insensitive rather than refined or empathetic. Then again, the alien had already seen Yifan faint, fall into a pool, struggle for words and stutter like an idiot on more than just one occasion, so Yifan figured that at this point, diplomacy and trying to appear graceful was a lost cause either way. In the end, he simply blurted out the question that had been preying on his mind ever since he had seen the ball of light fall down from the night sky.

„What are you?“

Yifan wasn‘t really sure what kind of answer he was expecting. Perhaps he was waiting for the term „alien“, perhaps he was waiting for the name of the planet the creature originated from—even if the other claimed not to be from another planet. Perhaps Yifan was waiting for the name of a foreign race he wouldn‘t even be able to pronounce. There were a lot of things he was imagining, but what he didn‘t expect was for the other to say, „A star.“

In that moment, Yifan realized that he had actually made his mental peace with housing an alien, a being belonging to a foreign race from a planet located in a far-away galaxy. Apparently, that was not what the other was, however, and it was slightly ridiculous how the other‘s revelation left Yifan‘s head spinning as he tried to make sense of the words. Did it really make so much of a difference? If the other was an alien or a star?

Yes, Yifan decided, it did. The other being an alien was something he could come to terms with. It being a _star_ , however, one of the bright celestial bodies illuminating the night sky from light-years away, threatened to destroy his worldview. Were all astrologists lying when they said that stars were balls of gas? Were they actually brightly glowing humanoids?

„You‘re _what?_ “ Yifan eventually gasped, his mind spinning too fast for him to catch up with it.

Perhaps he had simply misheard the other‘s words. Perhaps the creature didn‘t have a proper grasp of the Chinese language yet—although he had to admit he didn‘t know any similar sounding word that would have made any more sense. It would not have tried to say it was an orangutan.

„I‘m a star,“ the creature repeated, much to Yifan‘s distress. „A blue dwarf, to be exact. I used to be the companion star in what you humans seem to call ‚Gliese 250‘, if your computer tells the truth. Of the Monoceros constellation.“

„You‘re a star,“ Yifan mumbled to himself, hoping that repetition would make it easier for the new-found knowledge to sink in.

There was a fallen star. Sitting on his bed.

„But why are you here? How did you come here?“

The star‘s gaze turned contemplative, a sense of melancholy lingering in its dark blue eyes, and Yifan almost regretted the question.

„I don‘t know,“ it replied eventually, „I remember being a star, and the next thing I know, I am waking up in the pool. And you are standing there.“

 

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY, LITTLE SHEEP!  
> Congratulations for the birth of second son! A father of two by the age of 26, well done, Yixing. 
> 
> This is all based off a prompt from last year's exouni that kinda ran away with me so much that I decided to turn it into a chaptered thing. I aim to update weekly!


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